Michigan company asks Trump for trade help with China

Chunks of polycrystalline silicon are shown at Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation in Hemlock in April 2006. Polycrystalline silicon is the key ingredient in the manufacturing of wafers for solar panels.(Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

WASHINGTON —- A Michigan company on Thursday asked President Donald Trump to take action to reopen China to its polysilicon products or push for trade penalties.

Hundreds of employees at Hemlock Semiconductor — a company located in Hemlock and owned by Dow Chemical, Corning and Tokyo-based Shin-Etsu Handotai — signed a letter to Trump asking the president to "support our high-quality, high-value jobs by announcing an approach to the U.S.-China solar trade disputes."

Neither the White House nor the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative immediately responded to the Free Press' questions about the letter.

Hemlock said that in 2012, the U.S. imposed tariffs on Chinese and Taiwanese solar cells and modules after concluding that the Chinese were flooding the U.S. market with underpriced panels. China responded with a trade action imposing duties on polysilicon from the U.S., which is used in manufacturing solar cells and modules for panels.

Hemlock and other providers argue they have been effectively shut out of China since then. With that country representing 80% of the global demand for polysilicon, they say the industry has lost one-third of its workforce because of reduced trade.

"Failure to address the significant injury that our industry has suffered in this solar trade dispute will cause further harm ... and has the potential to cede global dominance in our strategic industry to China," the workers wrote.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.